Daybreak
by KeaJade
Summary: The meadow scene from chapter 13 in Twilght, only from a very different view.


I have to say, I haven't read a lot of Twilight fanfiction. Actually, I don't think I've read any. But I knew I had to write one, it just had to be a little different. And I couldn't bring myself to write about my favorite character, Jacob. But I did have an interesting idea. Here it is: the meadow scene from a very different point of view.

Disclaimer: Everything Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, including any dialogue in quotes. I own nothing useful right now.

Daybreak

Oh, Sunlight, how I missed you.

I stretched out, trying to get as many rays as possible to flow through me. I was starving. Sure, all the rain quenches my thirst, but it's the sun that nurtures me, fills me up. I could feel every part of me sigh with happiness as the sun climbed high enough to shine over every part of me.

I grew up in the wrong area if I love sun this much. But despite that, the little clearing I lived on the edge of was very beautiful, especially in the sunlight. I was so glad not to be underneath or completely surrounded by others; I would never get enough sun that way. And then I'd be miserable and tiny and withered, and none of my kind want that. If I was to be stuck here for a long while, then this wasn't such a bad place to be. I had the rain, the air, a bit of space to grow, and the sun, when it chose to appear. I also had others to speak with.

Since my kind live for so long, and spend all our time rooted in one place, we have a lot of time to hear stories that get passed on from tree to tree, from the elders to the youngest saplings. There are stories about the earth, the sky, the animals that run between us, and the strange two-leggers that appear sometimes. Those stories interest me the most. I have heard many tales of how two-leggers, or humans as they call themselves, live. But since I am so young, I still have quite a lot to learn about them.

I was feeling the sunlight all the way down to my roots when I heard voices through the other trees. It was not the soft voices of the trees around me, but rather the loud voices of two leggers that vibrated around inside my trunk and branches. It sounded like they were headed this way. Usually two-leggers stayed on the trail a ways away; not many came to where I stood. That's why I didn't really know too much about them. Occasionally, a certain two-legger would come here just to lie in the grass. But I can never hear him coming. It's like he suddenly appears in the clearing, and only in the sunlight. And, oh yes, he sparkles. Just like on a sunny morning when the blades of grass are still wet with dew and the sunlight catches the drops.

A female two-legger stepped into the clearing, a look of bliss on her face. She turned around and another two-legger came in to view. It was the Sparkling Man. This was the first time he had ever brought a friend.

I heard the elders start murmuring amongst themselves, like they did every time the Sparkling Man came near. They never told me what they discussed. I was still too young, barely older than a sapling, according to them.

The two-leggers walked to the center and sat down. It was strange to see the girl sitting next to the Sparkling Man, curled up with her arms wrapped around her legs, while he lied there, the top of his coverings open, sparkling where the sun hit him. The girl kept staring at him, her hand inching closer to where his own hand lay. Was this the first time she's seen him sparkle? I can still remember mine. It was also the first time I ever saw a two-legger. I was just barely a new sapling and could not stop watching him as he sat there. It was the same kind of look the girl had on her face as she traced his hand with her finger.

I wondered what he felt like. Was he rough like bark or smooth like leaves? Was he hot like summertime or cold like snow, especially when it catches the sunlight and sparkles just like him?

The wind carried their conversation over to me, so I couldn't help but listen in.

"I don't scare you, do I?" The Sparkling Man asked her.

"No more than usual."

There was always one thing about two-leggers that amused me. Their mouths. I have learned that they use them to feed and to communicate. I don't understand what good they do for them. It's much easier the way we do things, like absorbing over food through our leaves and roots, and communicating quietly without having to waste precious energy moving.

The girl was running her finger up and down his arm.

"What are you afraid of then?" He whispered to her so softly I could barely hear. She moved a bit closer and suddenly he was on the other side of the clearing. What could have happened? I thought two-leggers liked to get close. Wasn't that part of their strange mating ritual? At least that's what the elders tried to explain to me.

"I'm…sorry…Edward."

"Give me a moment."

He walked slowly back to the girl.

"I'm very sorry. Would you understand what I meant if I said I was only human?"

Something about the way he said that seemed strange. Like he wasn't speaking the truth about himself.

"I'm the world's best predator, aren't I? Everything about me invites you in – my voice, my face, even my _smell_. As if I need any of that." He was suddenly back up and running around the clearing. "As if you could outrun me," he laughed bitterly.

He was standing beside a spruce tree, one that had been there much longer than me. Then all of a sudden, he grabbed one of the larger branches and ripped it clean off.

A shudder ran through my entire body and I could feel myself drooping in sadness for my friend across the clearing. Two-leggers don't seem to understand how much that hurts us. It would be like one of the loosing a finger or an arm. Granted, we have a lot more appendages than them, but the result is still the same: part of us is missing and there is only a scar left. One that will be with us forever.

The Sparkling Man then threw the branch straight across the clearing, hitting the trunk of the tree next to me. I could feel him writher in pain as the now dead branch fell to the moss covered ground.

"As if you could fight me off." Was he speaking directly to me? It sure seemed like it. This two-legger clearly had no respect for nature. I was getting angry now, very angry. He was even scaring the human girl he brought with her. Why? His actions made no sense to me. No other time he visited here did he treat us with such disrespect.

I grew tense, annoyed, ready to do something. Not sure what, but they were my friends he was hurting. I wanted to fight him, to hurt him back. But before I could gather enough energy to do anything, I felt a branch lightly touch one of my own.

_Calm, young one._ It was a tall oak that stood nearby, one of the elders. _There is nothing you can do. The Sparkling Man is too strong even for us elders._

I drooped. Nothing about two-leggers made any sense to me anymore. The elders knew more about them then they have told me and everything they have told me does not seem to relate to the Sparkling Man. He's completely different from what I thought two-leggers were like.

_The Sparkling Man isn't a normal two-legger. _The oak explained to me. _We elders have been keeping an eye on him and his family for longer than some of us have been growing._

_But that's not possible. We live much longer than two-leggers. Even I know that._ I think the elders know important things about the Sparkling Man that I won't learn for a long time.

_You have grown high enough to know the truth. Two-leggers are a destructive force. They cut us down to make room to spread their own roots. They burn us to keep warm, and chop us up to shelter them. They may seem interesting to you now, but they know less about us than we know of them. They believe themselves to be the greatest species in nature. How weak they truly are._

_Can they change?_

_Some do, but they are laughed at by the others. Two-leggers cannot hear us like we do them. But that you already knew._

_But the Sparkling man, he's different, right? At least, I thought he was._

_By our sense he is a regular two-legger. But to them he is very different._

_How so?_

_Normal two-leggers are very frightened of him._

_Like the girl? _Well, she had looked afraid before. But now they were sitting close to each other again. _Why though? He sparkles, it's amazing._

_It's because his kind are what two-leggers call Vampires. They live as long as we do, sometimes longer, and they feed off other two-leggers._

His own kind? He was worse than a termite!

_But why, why is he so horrible?_

_That is for another time, young one. Now it's time to rest and enjoy the sunlight._

I turned my attention back to the two-leggers. They were standing up, ready to leave. The Sparkling Man let out a laugh and the girl climbed onto his back and suddenly they were gone. My clearing was back to the way it usually was: quiet and peaceful with no annoying two-leggers around. I hoped it would stay that way for awhile now.


End file.
